


I Need You

by DiscourteousCuttlefish



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One)
Genre: Gen, M/M, fulcrum diddly done goofed up, so many regrets poor boy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-22
Updated: 2016-04-29
Packaged: 2018-05-22 17:19:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6088021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DiscourteousCuttlefish/pseuds/DiscourteousCuttlefish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Misfire… I need you.”  He had said.<br/>Not in a serious professional kind of way, like, “Misfire… I need you… to pass me that wrench.”  Not even in a friendly, normal sort of way, like, “Misfire… I need you… to stop being a slagging idiot for 10 kliks and help me drag Spin back to the WAP.”  Nope, he said it in a desperate, pining sort of way… over the comms… so everybody heard… Yeah, that was certainly the end of this good time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Fuckery Begins

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so this is my first fic! It wasn't meant to be two chapters, but this part ended up being kind of long and I haven't had time to finish it yet. I'll try and upload the end soon.

Oh Primus he could not believe he just said that.

  
Or rather, he could believe it, but he desperately wished it was some kind of fever dream caused by some organic toxin.

  
Fulcrum always had a strange sort of luck. By that he meant bad luck that was always hiding behind good luck. In his life, it seemed, any instance of good luck was, in fact, a set up for some grand punchline that Primus wanted to make of his life. He had gotten the job he wanted on B’Lahr. How lucky that he would be able to help the cause and remove those backwards organics, as he so rightfully ought to… And of course, that base was attacked. He had survived the attack… only to get caught by the Decepticons and sent to prison for cowardice. He had been saved from the traitors’ wheel… only to get retrofitted to be a suicide bomb. He had even survived being dropped onto a battlefield (saved by the cowardice that had gotten him there in the first place because, Primus, why not)… only to miss the end of the war. He was woken up and saved by the Scavengers… only to bring down the wrath of the DJD and get one of their crew killed.

  
And they had taken Fulcrum with them and things were… good. He had really expected them to turn on him after the DJD had left. After all, he had survived the DJD, a dinobot, and another jump; he was due for Primus’ punchline. Why should something not go wrong at this point? Hell, he couldn’t even blame them if they wanted to kill him. But… they didn’t. They took him in, gave him energon (low-grade as it may have been), and treated him like a member of the crew. And while they had their share of ridiculous adventures, things had overall been amazing. Crankcase was grumpy, but as much as he grumbled, he appreciated Fulcrum’s technical expertise and assistance. Spinister scared Fulcrum near to death every time he shot a “menacing” object, floor space, wall space, whatever, but he was never a danger to Fulcrum and treated him well. Krok, who by all means should have hated Fulcrum, had been displeased about Fulcrum’s lies but welcomed and utilized him as part of the crew anyway. Grimlock was an interesting member (?) of the crew. For the most part he was benevolent, or at least neutral, save for a few rampages, which Misfire always swore he could handle. Fulcrum had actually unconsciously come to like the big guy’s presence. He just kind of followed crewmembers around and watched curiously has they went about doing work or relaxing. He was also infuriatingly good at Jenga, which made him a welcome, but frustrating part of game night. Even still, as much as Fulcrum liked Grimlock, he was still pretty sure that Primus’ punchline was going to come in the form of the Dinobot getting his memories back and ripping them all apart. Turns out the punchline came from a different direction.  
When Fulcrum was first around Misfire, he was fairly certain the seeker was going to annoy the shit out of him. After all, Fulcrum was a pretty low-energy bot unless he was scared or really interested in something. Misfire could and would excitedly talk about how uninterested he was in something. And then somehow in the process of trying to work despite Misfire’s incessant blathering, the K-Class found himself slowly started to think how cute it was. How cute the seeker’s face was when he was desperately trying to convey his excitement and thoughts in the fastest time possible. The way he lit up when he thought of literally anything he wanted to say. The ridiculous and affectionate way he acted when he had a little too much high-grade. How his wings twitched and fluttered… All sorts of unDecepticon-like things that just made Fulcrum flustered as he tried to ignore the thoughts. His stuttering and backtracking just attracted more of Misfire’s attention. In hindsight, he probably should have seen this punchline coming.

  
In any case, that is how he came to be on the WAP surrounded by the strangest Decepticons he had ever met, feeling the strangest fondness toward them he had ever felt toward anyone. And, oh Primus, was he just waiting for the shoe to drop. And it sure did.

  
“Misfire… I need you.” He had said.

  
Not in a serious professional kind of way, like, “Misfire… I need you… to pass me that wrench.” Not even in a friendly, normal sort of way, like, “Misfire… I need you… to stop being a slagging idiot for 10 kliks and help me drag Spin back to the WAP.” Nope, he said it in a desperate, pining sort of way… over the comms… so everybody heard… Yeah, that was certainly the end of this good time. Thank you Primus, you never fail to deliver the end of the joke. It’s fine; it isn’t the first time Fulcrum has been abandoned on a planet.

  
The day had started out normally enough. The WAP had been traveling through a somewhat barren sector of space, as always, in need of minor repairs and fuel. Fulcrum had gone up to the bridge after what repair work he could do, and realized he knew where they were. He had told Crankcase that he knew there was cyberforming equipment on a nearby planet; information that was received with a huff, but Krok was called anyway.

  
“Are you certain that this planet has cybertronian equipment on it? Would they really have left equipment behind after the job was done?”

  
“I know that this planet was part of the cyberforming initiative, the make-up of the planet under the soil and organic life is perfect for mining and using in cybertronian systems. Normally they wouldn’t leave equipment here but… judging by how green the planet is? I’d say they abandoned it. They may have been chased out by an Autobot attack.”

  
“How can you be sure that is the case? I don’t want to land there and find they were killed by the natives or some foreign toxin.”

  
Fulcrum hesitated. Could the team on that planet been run out by the organics? The thought was enough to bring a twinge of fear to Fulcrum’s spark but there was no way an organic life-form could pose a real threat to a cybertronian. Surely, Megatron would not have sent Decepticons to a planet that they couldn’t take.

  
“I doubt it… best guess would be Autobots. In any case, we are in desperate need of supplies, what’s the harm in checking?”

  
“I hate to throw a wrench in this fun talk,” Crankcase cut in, always ready to throw a wrench in any fun talk, “but if we land there we had better find those supplies otherwise the ship will not be taking off again… and if we don’t land there we had better find somewhere soon or we are going to end up dead in space.”

  
Krok paused, “… well then I guess be better get ready to take the WAP down there. Fulcrum, help Crankcase and land us as close to the base as possible. I will alert the crew.”

  
After only minor damage to what remained of the concept of landing gear, the Scavengers found themselves parked in an overgrown forest, all tall trees and tangled vines with bright splashes of color from waxy looking flowers. Insect-like creatures of all sizes, colors, and forms buzzed and fluttered around the vegetation, which was so dense that only a few bright strands of light fell like columns through the forest. What other streams of light came through were shades of green, red, blue, and purple, as they filtered through leaves and flowers. Fulcrum was disgusted. He never could stomach organic systems.

  
Krok and Crankcase looked on with general disinterest. Grimlock was curiously nosing at some brightly colored vegetation that was stuck in the plating of the WAP. Spinister was looking rather disturbed, looking unsure about what he ought to shoot, but certain that he ought to be shooting something. Misfire had that silly, adorably excited face on as he rambled on about how supremely interesting this all was, and guessed at what was poisonous and what those poisons might do and what else could be living in this forest.

  
“Settle down, Misfire.” Krok started. “Okay, we know that there are at least four main centers for this cyberforming site. I would like to hit them all, but since we don’t actually know why this all was abandoned we are going to be staying in groups. We’ll start with the largest ones, so if we have to leave unexpectedly we have a higher chance of getting supplies. Spinister, Crankcase, and I will be going to the center northeast of us. Fulcrum, Misfire, and Grimlock with be hitting the eastern center. Make sure all comms are on and report anything dangerous or suspicious.”

  
Krok had long since stopped trying to separate Grimlock from Misfire, and had long since realized if he separated Misfire from Fulcrum he would be subjected to an endless barrage of whining over the comms. And so, the breakdown of teams was always the same. Being fully aware of this, Krok was only half way through instructions before Misfire was ready to go.

  
“Got it! Welp, better get moving so we can get this stuff as soon as possible!” The seeker exclaimed, arms already under Fulcrum’s arms.

  
“Don’t you dare picK ME UP--” Fulcrum hadn’t even gotten the sentence out before he found himself flying through the air with Grimlock crashing through the jungle after them.

  
“Why would you ever want to destroy this? This stuff is ridiculous; it’s amazing!” Misfire shouted, dodging through leaves and branches as Fulcrum was hit by almost every piece.

  
“Ugh… Primus…” Fulcrum said, spitting and sputtering as he tried to keep vegetation from hitting his face and clearing what had from his mouth. “The organics are backwards, Misfire. You have to realize as pretty as this all is –“ he spit an insect from his mouth, “ugh – the organics’ systems are filthy, and quite frankly, under-evolved. It’s not like I have some personal hatred but…”

  
“Can’t help but wonder if that mindset is gonna bite you in the aft.”

  
Fulcrum didn’t have time to respond before they unceremoniously landed at the front entrance of the center. Seconds later, Grimlock came crashing out of the woods, stained various colors from the vegetation and insects.

  
“Woooow… We are definitely gonna have to wash him when we get back to the WAP. Though I’m kinda liking the new color scheme.” Misfire laughed out as the dinobot tried to rub the hues off him.

  
“What the slag could have happened here… “ Fulcrum wondered aloud.

  
Misfire turned to see the K-Class inspecting what appeared to be large scratches around the entrance and on a control panel. He hated to admit it, but Fulcrum’s confidence was shaken. Could an organic have done this? Chased out and killed all the Decepticons? It doesn’t matter, or so he told himself, they couldn’t get off this planet without supplies anyway. With what little comfort that provided, Fulcrum went to work trying to open the door’s control panel. Part of him was really hoping he wouldn’t be able to open it, but sure enough, with his cursed good luck, the door slid open within just a few pulled wires.


	2. The Fuckery Never Ends [but kind of ends here]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The shocking reveal

Fulcrum was regretting that his curiosity had a stronger hold on him than fear. He was convicted of cowardice for Primus’ sake, he ought to be able to run from obvious death. As bad as the façade of the building looked, the inside was worse. Claw marks marred every wall. Whatever did this was bigger than even cybertronians; there was considerable wear on the ceiling where lights and other fixtures had been scraped along the top as the creature forced its way through. Fulcrum tried to ignore the faint glittering patches spattered on the walls that looked suspiciously like dried energon.

While Fulcrum’s conscience was desperately nagging him to leave, his curiosity compelled him farther. They went deeper into the base, passing destroyed rooms and rooms with the doors so bent and contorted not even Grimlock could open them. Fulcrum kept pushing forward. He couldn’t conceive how an organic could cause so much destruction. It had to be something, anything, else; things weren’t always as they seemed, right?

Misfire had no such reservations. He was nothing less than ecstatic, it seemed. While Fulcrum lamented his ability to be courageous at all the wrong times, Misfire was contemplating every possible combination of features the organic might have. 

“Well, we know it has claws, do you think it has sharp teeth too? Oooh, maybe it has multiple arms with claws! Maybe it has multiple mouths! Hey, pinhead, you ever seen an organic with multiple mouths? Man, we’d sure be fucked, right? It could eat us all at once… Well at least you two, I could fly away. Unless it has wings!”

And so on, ever since they had entered the base. Nonstop. Luckily for Fulcrum, Misfire was more engrossed in speculating than getting answers for any of his questions. Since he didn’t want an answer, Fulcrum was free to fret. 

“Misfire, calm down. We’re almost to the center of the bas – Ow! Grimlock!”

Grimlock gave Fulcrum an apologetic look. He had been oddly subdued since entering the base. The dinobot had been walking so close to the two he was almost on top of them and kept stepping on their pedes.

When they reached the command center, they all froze. Even Misfire was silent. The entire place was destroyed. Not unexpected, but still shocking to see.

Machinery was torn from the ground and sliced and battered. There were black marks on the wall, indicative of blaster fire. There was no denying that the glittering spatters across the room were dried energon, as they were now accompanied by remains of cybertronians. Just pieces here and there: an arm, a lacerated faceplate, a whole torso with no limbs. The central power core remained standing, its dull blue glow illuminating the room. It was covered in what looked like bite marks, but it wasn’t too badly damaged. It clearly hadn’t been refueled in quite some time, when it was bitten the charge was probably enough to give the creature quite a shock. Yet despite all the carnage, there was one part of the room more transfixing than the others.

The large northerly passage across from them was charred. The entrance and inside were covered in a sparkling black soot, indicating an energon explosion. It probably led to the energon stores, which had been detonated, maybe out of self-defense. The passage was so blackened by the burns it looked like a black hole, devoid of life, with a pulling force that seemed to want to drag them in and consume them. 

Misfire and Fulcrum tore their eyes from the gaping entrance but Grimlock remained frozen, silent and rigid.

“We… have to see if there is any remaining energon in here. We should be able to get into the core and siphon some.”

“Gonna have to be the core… even if these died sooner there isn’t enough of any of them left to siphon. I hope this thing isn’t still here. Haha. Though I’d love to see an organic that bi-“

“It’s not an organic! There’s no organic that big! There’s no organic that strong! It had to be some cybertronian experiment. Shockwave had bases everywhere, he probably created it and it’s surely gone by now. Open a line to Krok and let him know we found some energon.”

“Fiiiiine. You’re no fun, loser.”

The first sound through the channel was gunshots, followed by crashing, followed by silence. Fulcrum felt like he could collapse; fear had finally outpaced curiosity and it sank into his every joint. That thing is still here. 

Until.

“Damn it, Spinister! Stop shooting them; they are just leaves. They rustle. That’s what they do. Enough.”

“Krok!” Of course it’s not some creature! Fulcrum knew that, he was silly to worry.

“Primus, what? Why are you yelling?”

“I… um… nothing… Anyway, we think we found some energon at the core… not really any more than that. Have you had any luck?”

“No we couldn’t even get in. The door is all out of shape, couldn’t even force it open… see anything like that there?”

“Um…” 

“There are corpses everywhere! And all the energon exploded! Some crazy giant organic, I bet!” Misfire cut in, loudly.

“What? What was that? Fulcrum, if you all are in some kind of danger you need to get out of there.”

“No, no we are not!” Fulcrum said, swatting Misfire’s hand away from the communicator. “Look, something came through and destroyed this place, kind of like how you described your location. Whatever it was, it’s probably gone by now. Isn’t it a moot point anyway? If we can’t get energon we can’t leave.”

It sounded like there was some sort of grumbling, probably Crankcase less than politely reaffirming that they needed the energon, and then Krok came back on the line.

“Alright, but if there is danger, you all get out of there.”

“Got it.”

“Roooooooooooger that, sir.”

Pausing to let out an exhausted sigh at Misfire’s remark, Krok closed the line, leaving Fulcrum and the others standing around in the oppressive silence.

“Well… I guess get to work… I’ll look around for any useful information or equipment. Grimlock… Grimlock, you stay there and watch the hole for us, I guess?”

Fulcrum was a little concerned about the dinobot’s tense stance and the low growl he had been emitting since they entered the room. Fulcrum was getting more and more nervous, but he didn’t want Misfire to see his rising panic. He didn’t know why, everyone on the WAP knew he was a convicted coward…but maybe he hoped that the dive he tried to take for them when they were fighting the DJD had convinced them all he wasn’t such a sorry case. In any case, nothing looked like cowardice more than saying brave words while obviously terrified, so he tried to keep up his stoic face.

Fulcrum moved around the room, only half of his mind working on sorting the tech, the other have caught up in his insecurities and fears. Misfire had managed to get two energon cubes formed, but it seemed as though the core was already running out. As the energon level lowered, the dull light from the core sank lower and lower, making the dark hallway look as though its darkness was beginning to swallow the room. 

Fulcrum’s eyes were drawn back to the passage and he froze. He saw a flicker of dull red luminescence in the darkness that he hated to admit looked like the reflection in the eye of an organic. Frozen, staring into the darkness, Fulcrum regained a little bit of sense and the ceaseless drone of Misfire filling the silence came back into focus.

“Hush…”

“What? Well excuse me, pinhead, I didn’t exactly see you trying to join the conversation! You don’t get to –“

“HUSH.” Fulcrum loved Misfire, but sometimes that bot did not know when to stop talking.

Wait. Did he think ‘love?’ He didn’t mean that. Well he meant it, but in a… comradery sort of way. Like he loved Krok or Spin or…

Fulcrum didn’t get to finish that thought before a loud growl tore from Grimlock’s throat, loud enough to make Misfire go stiff.

But there was something else too. Fulcrum tried to focus in on the sound, though he really didn’t want to. There was a gurgling hiss coming from the passageway. Squinting his optics, he saw what he really hoped was not the silhouette of something large enough to appear cramped in the passageway.

Another flash of luminescence.

Shuffling slightly backwards, Fulcrum looked at Misfire, who was looking between Fulcrum and the gaping darkness, and tried to find his voice. 

Grimlock twitched, and the beast twitched, and in the split second before two parties lunged at each other, Fulcrum managed to scream.

“RUN!”

Grimlock and the creature lunged at each other, and both Fulcrum and Misfire took off running. Fulcrum had only gotten a short look at the thing before turning his gaze forward to avoid tripping. Whatever it was…it was certainly organic. It had a deep black hide; it looked tough, suitable for something designed to run through thick jungle… and suitable to prevent serious damage from blaster fire. It appeared to have some ability to stand on two hind legs, and had claws on its feet and rows of teeth in its mouth almost dark enough to match the blackness of its hide. 

The sound of a t-cog activating shook him from his dazed run, and he looked up to see Misfire transform into a jet and bolt forward.

“Wait! Hey! I can’t go that fast…” He called futilely after the jet. He slowed to a stumbling walk before just stopping in the passage. They had run out through a different passage than they had entered, and he had no idea where he was or where Misfire had flown off to.

Now he was in a full panic. He tried to calm himself. He knew the layout of bases like this; he could find his way out… but could Misfire? Fulcrum was certain that Misfire would get lost. Maybe he would end up back where the organic was… Maybe he would get lost deeper in and run into another one of those things…

In the briefest of moment of clarity, Fulcrum realized he ought to tell Krok what was going on. He fumbled to get his communicator active and as soon as he heard the connection click, he yelled.

“KROK!”

A startled yelp, followed by, “Primus what did I just say about the yelling? What?”

“Thing… organic… it’s still here… destroyed everything… Grimlock and Misfire…” He was stumbling over his words to tell Krok the situation.

“Hold on, what are you saying? What organic? What’s wrong with Grimlock and Misfire?”

Fulcrum wasn’t getting any closer to forming lucid sentences, so Krok sighed and accepted that this was how this interaction was going to go.

“Look, just make your way to the entrance, we’re on the way.”

Krok hung up, but Fulcrum was still just standing in place dumbstruck. He could hear faint echoes of Grimlock fighting the beast. Panicking once more, Fuclrum took off through the passages. In his panic, his mind decided that it was his new goal to find Misfire first.

He ran through the halls, taking arbitrary turns, and listening to the roars grow louder and softer as he moved. All the while, he was calling to Misfire to no avail. Nearly an hour had passed and Fulcrum had begun to settle. Pausing to collect himself, he realized that the fighting had ceased, or at least, he had ceased to hear it. With that stressor no longer a factor, Fulcrum realized a more important detail.

He had absolutely no idea where he was.

He had taken so many random turns, he had forgotten to keep track of where he was. Okay. Not a huge issue. He could just walk until he saw the next passage marker and then he would get his bearings. But he had not chosen his turns with any discrimination, so he had no idea how far off he had been in pursuing Misfire. 

Fulcrum continued through the dead silence. Primus, he really hoped that Misfire was okay. That would just be too unfair. He knew his life was one big joke to Primus, but for goodness sake, it would just be cruel to take away Misfire as the punchline to this terrible joke. Fulcrum tried to ignore the pricking at his optics as he thought about Misfire. He was so bright and full of life and optimistic. The universe needed people like him, even with as annoying as he could be. Fulcrum would rather that the punchline just be his own death over Misfire’s. 

Wait. His commlink. Fulcrum had one last glimmer of hope. Misfire probably had his commline open because he always did, why waste an opportunity to talk at someone. Fulcrum activated his commlink and said,

“Misfire, I need you…”

A brief pause and a shuffle over the comms.

“Um… Pinhead, where are you?”

“MISFIRE? WHAT?”

“Yeaaaaaaah, I grabbed Grimlock and went out the front to meet Krok and them…”

Oh Primus why. Fulcrum had gotten himself so worked up he hadn’t even thought about what his voice would sound like when he finally spoke. He certainly hadn’t wanted it to sound all whiny and needy… for everyone… to hear. Fulcrum was honestly never more ready to embrace death than at that moment.

“Sooo do we need to get you or…”

“Nope. Nope, I think I’m good. I’ll, uh, be out in a bit…”

“…Okay good…”

And they both hung up.

Well they tried to; Spinister stayed on the channel.

“What in the fragging pit was that?!?!” 

Yep. Fulcrum really hoped he would run into that organic. Please, Primus end it so he didn’t have to deal with them leaving him on this planet. Again, being left here was also sounding like a lovely alternative to actually getting back to the ship and having everything be awkward forever. Apparently, Primus wanted him to die of embarrassment. Survive the war, survive being a suicide bomb, survive the DJD, survive that beast… die of embarrassment. Haha. Quite the punchline.

“Just get back to the entrance.” Krok said somewhat stiffly. Thankfully, he at least closed the commlink. 

Fuclrum quickly found the passage marker he needed and slowly made his way back to the entrance. Sure, that organic was probably still wandering around here, but he wasn’t really feeling like dying before reaching the entrance was a bad thing. Unfortunately, he reached the entrance unharmed.

“Took you long enough.” Grumbled Crankcase in his normal friendly tone, although Fulcrum could swear he was biting back laughter… and a smile, if he could smile…

“Yeah, honestly you took forever. We practically had to shoot Misfire to keep him from going back in there after you.” Spinister was probably joking, maybe not, about shooting Misfire, but Fulcrum was more interested in the fact that Misfire had wanted to go after him. He cast the thought from his brain, Misfire probably wanted to save him as he would with any of their crewmates.

The trek back to the WAP felt unbearably long. Fulcrum didn’t even have the heart to be bereft about all the filthy organic matter getting on his pedes and in between his plating. Grimlock was walking close to him, luckily shielding him from the view of the rest of the crew. He was surprised at the absence of the awkward silence he was expecting, though.

The air was filled with the normal sounds of being near the Scavengers. Crankcase grumbled under his breath. Spinister waved his gun around and shot things. Krok yelled at Spinister for waving his gun around and shooting things. And Misfire… was still filling the vacuum with an endless stream of words. He seemed to be recounting the events of the day.

“Yeah so, I went back to grab Grimlock because the big lug, Primus love him, definitely would have fought to the death. And this thing! Giant! It had thousands of teeth and sharp claws. It was moving so fast for something that big! It had probably more than two mouths and like 6 arms,” Blatantly untrue, “and it was swiping at Grim. I wanted to run, but I couldn’t leave poor Grimlock behind, so I launched a daring rescue. Swooping in, I blinded the thing with my blaster,” He missed, “and I grabbed Grimlock and we just ran for it. I led him out to safety where we met you all!” Misfire got lost, multiple times. Grimlock had sniffed their way out. 

No one was really buying Misfire’s story, but they had already made it back to the WAP and everyone was more interested in leaving the planet than arguing with his bold-faced lies. Misfire had managed to collect the energon while grabbing Grimlock and they had just enough to get off this planet. It wasn’t great, but no one was keen to go searching for more energon. 

Fulcrum kept waiting for the awkwardness to come… but it still hadn’t. The preparations and procedures for takeoff had been completed. They had made it off the planet. They were travelling through space, but nothing. No comments, no silences, nothing. And it was killing Fulcrum. He decided he ought to just bite the bullet, and found Misfire, who was hanging out in the mess, refining some high grade.

“Misfire…”

“What’s up, loser?” Misfire said, so normally, not even looking up from his ‘work.’ He was acting as though Fulcrum had not humiliated himself for everyone to hear.

“About what I said earlier…”

“What thing you said?”

“You know… back at the base… before we all left…”

“Ohhh you mean the ‘I neeeeeeeeed you’ bit.”

“YES. That is the one, thank you for the imitation… I hope it won’t make things weird… between us I mean.”

Misfire finally looked up, giving Fulcrum a confused stare. “Why would it?”

“I mean… because… it made it sound like I had some kind of, I don’t know, romantic feelings towards you!”

“Don’t you?” 

“I’m sorry?” Fulcrum was petrified. Had he been that obvious?

“I mean, come on, pinhead. It was pretty obvious.” 

Primus, why? How had this somehow become more awkward? Apparently, Fulcrum had always sounded so needy. Apparently, his feelings were quite easy to read. 

“I… wait… what…”

“We all knew.” Yelled a new voice from another passageway. Bad thing about a small ship and crew, everyone heard everything, either when it happened or moments after. 

“Krok, what are you yelling for?” Called Crankcase.

“Fuclrum is finding out we all knew that he loved Misfire.”

“Wait,” chimed in Spinister. “Are you telling me he didn’t know that we all knew? How could he possibly think anyone didn’t know?”

“Yeah, pretty dumb.”

“All of you shut up! Back to your business. Let them sort this out.”

“Thanks, Krok!” Misfire called back to the myriad of voices.

Fulcrum gave a hopeless look over to Grimlock, who had entered to see what all the yelling was about. Grimlock gave him nothing but a shrug. Fantastic, even the dinobot knew. This was it; this was the moment when Fulcrum learned whether or not a cybertronian could die of embarrassment. Misfire looked at him expectantly, and Fulcrum just stood dumbly staring at Misfire. He had no idea what to do.

“You could kiss.” Suggested the helpful, muted voice of Krok. 

Fulcrum looked about ready to pass out from shame, but Misfire just laughed and stood up, closing the gap between Fulcrum and himself. Grabbing either side of Fulcrum’s face, he pulled him into a big, sloppy, wet kiss, dropped him, and sat back down.

Fulcrum just really needed to pass out now. He wasn’t sure how to respond, so, awkwardly gasping for air, he mumbled out something close to ‘going to berth to recharge okay goodbye.’ Misfire laughed at him again and Fulcrum stumbled toward the door.

“Hey, Loser!” Fulcrum stopped and stood stock still, not sure what to expect. “Don’t worry, I need you too.”

Fulcrum took in what Misfire had said, and with a dopey grin made his way back to his berth to recharge. That day had been physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausting, but he fell into recharge satisfied. Humiliated as he might have felt, this was a punchline he could live with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you kindly for reading my first ever 'fan fiction' as the kids say! Sorry it took so long for me to finish! All reviews, critiques, kudos welcome. Suggestions/prompts also welcomed but send them over to my tumblr at Discourteouscuttlefish.tumblr.com
> 
> And a thank you to Queerquestion [formerly Agendersuperboy], who edits all my stuff because I am a sloppy, fast writer.

**Author's Note:**

> Please feel free to leave any reviews, critiques, comments, etc.  
> Thank you to my dear AgenderSuperboy for helping me with editing because I am a careless writer.


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